How to play AK in and out of position
I learned a long time ago that GTO tells you that when you have AK and you're OOP and someone 3-bets you, all things being equal you should shove. In fact, this play gets used so often now that I think it's sometimes turning into a liability. I was in a hand where all of the action folded to the SB who opened to $25 and I 3-bet to $75 with KQs in the BB. He shoves with around $1,500 behind. What hand does that other than AK for such a relatively small pot? Aces, kings, queens and jacks should 4-bet, but AK always shoves. I had to fold because I knew exactly what he had and I was behind, but if I even had a pair of 2's I would have called him.
Anyway, I have two questions about this play:
- 1. I have seen a few players pull off this same tactic with AQ. Do solvers conclude that players should also shove with AQ in these situations or were these a few cavalier players pushing things a bit?
- 2. What is the correct move when you are 3-bet and you are in position? Do you sometimes still shove or is this a call?
3 Replies
Any sane person wouldn't jam 1500 with any hand vs a 75$ 3bet.
If they really jam with AK/AQ with super deep stacks, it's easy money when you have QQ+.
Does GTO really tells you to jam 300bb for 2/5 or 500 bb for 1/3 with AK vs a 75$ 3bet???
This is very similar to some drunk fish who open jamming 300 into blinds with random Ax.
In GTOWizard, there are spots where you 4bet jam AKo over a relatively small 3bet. For example, UTG vs UTG1, if UTG opens 2bb and UTG1 3bets to 6.5bb, UTG mostly 4bet jams AKo for 100bb effective. Importantly, GTOw is also 4bet jamming KK 63% of the time for balance. This ensures that UTG1 can't simply call with any pocket pair (UTG1 pure folds pairs 99 and below in response).
As the small blind in a blind versus blind 3bet spot, GTOW will 4bet jam a wider range over a single 3bet. This range includes AQo, some suited broadway combos, and some mid high pairs. The BB's response to this jam is to call off with AQo+ and all pocket pairs that 3bet pre.
In both spots, once you get to even 150bb deep, GTOw is no longer 4bet jamming pre.
It's hard for me to believe that jamming $1500 over a $75 3bet would ever be a good play. At the same time, 3bet/calling off with 22 facing this action also seems really bad. The jam is so big that you should not be calling off very often. I also wouldn't be super surprised to see a bad player make this jam with a big pair that they are scared to play OOP.
I learned a long time ago that GTO tells you that when you have AK and you're OOP and someone 3-bets you, all things being equal you should shove.
This isn't true, especially when playing deep-stack.
